The present invention relates to an optical fiber cleavage method and in particular a method making it possible to obtain by cleavage an oblique optical fiber end face.
In order to reduce reflection in the vicinity of an optical fiber connection, use is made of optical fibers of the type in which the end face of the fiber is oblique, that is to say not perpendicular to the axis of the fiber.
It is important in practice to minimize reflection of the signal transmitted over the end face of an optical fibre especially when using high-output DFB lasers.
Various methods are known for producing an oblique face at the end of an optical fiber.
Thus, a first method consists in immobilizing the fiber by cementing into a support and in polishing the fiber, this method being used above all when the end of the fiber is mounted in a ferrule.
A second, more economical method makes it possible to obtain an oblique face directly by fracture or cleavage of the optical fiber. According to this method, tension and torsion are exerted on a segment of the fiber held in separated supports, and an onset of breakage is made at a point of the segment by means of a tool such as a blade, in such a way as to determine the site of the fracture accurately.
Although the latter method is fairly easy to implement for a single fiber, it is however very difficult, or even impossible, to use for a flat cable containing several closely spaced fibers owing to the need to apply, to each fiber of the cable individually, a torsion at its end.